Cow that produces milk with insulin was created in Brazil

There may be a different way to get your insulin

People with long-term health issues need to have particular gadgets and things that make their lives easier. One of those people is diabetics, who need insulin pumps, devices that measure blood sugar levels. This is crucial because monitoring such things might help them save their life.

Insulin pens and pumps are not simple devices, and people need monitoring and maintenance. It makes everyday lives for the ones with these conditions more difficult. It is not easy to have diabetes because your health overall is affected and you cannot do everything any other healthy person could.

Scientists try to find more convenient and simple devices that are automatic so people can live simpler lives and maintain their health. People cannot afford more innovative devices or even the drug itself, shortage of the drug also affects many people. However, scientists found an unexpected fix for ongoing shortages of insulin and the issue with particular use of devices.

Researchers in Brazil found a brown bovine, the first transgenic cow, to produce human insulin in milk^[1]. Experts say that mammary glands are a factory to make protein efficiently. Animal sciences professor Matt Wheeler noted that we need to take advantage of the system Mother Nature created. "We can take advantage of that system to produce a protein that can help hundreds of millions of people worldwide," he said^[2].

Scientists successfully developed the insulin-making cow

Researchers from the University of Sao Paolo and other scientists, led by M. Wheeler, say that they need a purification system, more testing, and the proper approval from the US Food and Drug Administration before the strategy is put to work. However, the development could help many people and even save the lives of those who cannot administer their insulin without proper medical help.

This insulin produced by the transgenic cow could ease shortages that make the hormone hard to come by for the 8.4 million Americans with diabetes. People rely on this drug to survive.

Researchers say that their goal was to make proinsulin, purify it out to insulin, and go from there. M. Wheeler mentioned that the cow basically processed the proinsulin herself. "The mammary gland is a magical thing." The production of such a transgenic cow relied on a segment of human DNA.

It was inserted into the cell nuclei of 10 cow embryos. Through genetic engineering, this human DNA was targeted for expression in breast tissue only. These altered embryos were implanted in the uteri of normal cows in Brazil. This is how one transgenic calf was finally born.

One special cow was born, and the next step is to re-clone her

Once the cow from the transferred embryos was born and matured, the team used artificial insemination to try to impregnate her and produce another calf while also triggering milk production. However, those attempts have failed. Then, the team used hormones to stimulate her to produce milk for the first time.

She made less milk than pregnancy could cause; milk not only had detectable levels of proinsulin, but also human insulin itself. That was unexpected. The insulin and proinsulin still have to be extracted and purified for proper use. Also, each liter of milk contained a few grams of insulin.

There was no number of the typical amount of insulin yet. However, Wheeler did calculations to come up with this typical insuling unit that equals to 0.0347 milligrams. If a cow could make 1 gram of insulin per liter of milk, and a typical Holstein makes 40 to 50 liters a day, that's a lot of insulin. 

"That means each gram is equivalent to 28,818 units of insulin. And that's just one liter: Holsteins can produce 50 liters a day. You can do the math," Wheeler said.

The research team's next stage is to re-clone the cow. Researchers think that the next generation of such animals could achieve greater success with pregnancy and full lactation cycles. Eventually, the team wants to create transgenic bulls and mate them with the females to create a 'purpose-built' herd^[3].

According to them, even a small herd could quickly outpace existing methods for insulin production without the need for highly technical facilities or infrastructure. They believe that in the future we could see 100-herd that is equivalent to a small Illinois or Wisconsin dairy that could produce all the insulin needed for the US. And even a larger herd could make the whole world's supply in a year. That is the dream.